Hey guys! WE MADE IT TO 50 REVIEWS BY CHAPTER 13 YAHOO! Now could we try to hit 100 before this story is over, thanks!

Hey FYI, I might not be able to check reviews or read stories (if I'm keeping up with yours) for the next week. I will be on vacation and if I get on the web it'll be a serious stroke of luck. Still... review! Hey I put up a new Training Series story so check it out, and please review on it too. Hey I put up a poll on my bio, so please vote on it!

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Chapter 14: Realm of Darkness

Sora's mind wandered through darkness, when suddenly an image of Roxas appeared before him. The Nobody smiled, "Hello Sora."

"Hi Roxas! What's up?"

"You have a special kind of power," Roxas answered in almost a trance, "If you see the heart in something it becomes real."

"What in Kingdom Hearts are you talking about?" The Nobody vanished. "Hey wait! What did you mean? Roxas!"

Sora's eyes fluttered open to reveal darkness. Around him on the dark ground were the others, only Riku was awake. The silverette was leaning over Lea's body. "Riku, is he alright?"

"Yea, he was able to channel the darkness into a large dark corridor. It sent us here, to the Realm of Darkness." Riku looked up at his best friend, "Didn't think you'd see this place again; am I right?" Sora nodded and went over to Kairi's unconscious form. "She's fine, Sora. I checked them all, everyone's ok."

Ven was the next to wake up, followed by Kairi a few seconds later. The DisneyCastle bunch woke up next, one after the other. Lea finally opened his eyes but didn't sit up. "Lea, you ok?"

"I don't want to get up… my body feels like it's on fire right now."

Mickey came over to him, "You shouldn't have tried to absorb all that darkness. We would've been alright."

With Riku and Ven's help, the pyro was able to sit up. "Of all the places to get us to, I brought us here… the Realm of Darkness."

"The Realm of Darkness!" Ven's head shot up, "Aqua's here!"

"What?"

"We've got to find her!" Ven jumped up and began to run off; Riku caught him by his collar. "Hey! Let me go!"

The Keyblade Master gave a small smile, "Calm down… you're worse than Sora sometimes." Ven relaxed. "That's better, we'll find Aqua, don't worry. First we need to get our bearing and focus on protecting Kairi."

"I don't need protection," the Princess argued.

"Oh yes you do," Lea shot back, "You're a Princess of Heart and this is the Realm of Darkness. Your pure light will draw almost every Heartless to us; they'll try to destroy your light by any possible way." Sora grabbed her hand protectively.

Goofy was thinking, "Where would we find Aqua?"

"There is one place that you will always end up at if you travel this world long enough," the King of Disney Castle replied, "Riku and Lea know where I'm talking about."

"The lonely shores."

Lea agreed, "If she's anywhere by now, she's there."

Ven was tapping his foot urgently, "Can we go… she has waited thirteen years to get out of here, we shouldn't make her wait any longer."

"Alright, let's go." Riku helped Lea to his feet and the band walked through the black land.

There was absolutely no sound except for the soft plodding of their feet. No one spoke, for there was really nothing to say. Kairi stood close to Sora, Riku and Lea's warning on her mind. She turned around and, to her shock, there was someone following them. It was a figure in a black coat, and it was coming closer.

"Sora…" The boy turned and spotted him as well. "What'll we do?"

"Just keep walking."

Behind them the figure stopped and watched them round a corner. Around the corner the group halted as a familiar figure rose up before them. "Oh come-on," Lea moaned, "This stupid Heartless again." They looked up at the Darkside Heartless, a familiar sight to nearly all of them.

"Take it down!" They all summoned their Keyblades and jumped into action. Kairi jumped onto it's arm and ran upwards to its head; Mickey joined her up there, and the two stabbed the Heartless in the face multiple times.

The Princess jumped off as Riku slammed the Darkside backwards, sending it toppling over a cliff. As they watched it fall Kairi's arm was grabbed; she turned and saw the cloaked figure she had seen earlier. The boys turned and saw him grabbing her arm, but before they could react, Kairi had already done so. She grabbed the figure's wrist, twisted it so he let go of her, and then flipped him over her shoulder and off the cliff.

Everyone but Lea and Riku stared at her in utter shock. Without a word she walked past them. As she passed the pyro and the wielder of Darkness she whispered, "He was stupid enough…" They both chuckled at this.

They kept walking, but Sora was still amazed at Kairi's quick and decisive movements, and how calm she was. She had just flipped a man off a cliff, and he could tell that she was calm as ever, possibly even calmer. "Something happened… but what?"

"Hey look!" Ven pointed. From their vantage point they could see the lonely shores. From there they could see two figures sitting there. "That must be Aqua down there!"

He dashed off but Lea quickly grabbed him by the shirt collar. "Calm down, kiddo. If we rush down there we might run right into a nest of Heartless."

"Fine…" They slowly walked down towards the shore; Ven was nearly vibrating with excitement.

As they came around a bend, they spotted a black cloaked figure. "That can't be!"

"It is!" the figure said in a warped voice, "I was not expecting the Princess to throw me off a cliff. That's a new side we'll have to keep an eye on."

Kairi smirked at him as they all summoned their weapons. "Better keep an eye on the rest of us too."

"This shouldn't take long," he chuckled. To their utter surprise, he summoned Riku's former weapon, Soul Eater. "Surprised? Maybe before you all die I'll tell you who I am." He then launched a dark aura at them. The group jumped away just in time; but the figure came at them again.

He slammed Riku in the back with a maniacal laugh, and he felt a somewhat familiar darkness. He jumped up and soon Way to Dawn pressed against Soul Eater. "Who are you? Why do you have that weapon?"

"Maybe I'll tell you… right before you die!" The figure jumped back and unleashed a dark Fiagara. Riku cast Reflega and sent it back, but the figure dodged the Hero of Darkness's attack. "Thanks for the help, Riku!"

When the figure moved, Riku's eyes grew wide in shock; his attack headed straight for Kairi. "LOOK OUT!" The Princess turned around only to see Sora leap in the way of the attack. "NO SORA!"

"See what you've done Riku. Your friends are getting hurt and it's all because of you."

"NO!" Mickey attacked the figure, "You and the rest of Xehanort's men are behind this!"

"THAT'S RIGHT!" A girl's voice called out from behind the figure. The figure turned and a Keyblade struck him in the face. As the figure fell, the blade stuck into the ground; Mickey gasped. The Keyblade had a long thin dark gray shaft with an E shaped blade; the handle was square with black rivets along its silver color, and the guard matched the handle except for the bronze rods holding it together along the top and sides. The Keychain was the heart symbol, or 'Mastery' symbol that Ventus wore.

Ven saw it and yelled, "Master Eraqus's blade!"

"You?" the figure in the coat turned to see a figure standing in the shadows. "I thought you were gone forever!"

"Don't bet on it!" Out from the shadows stepped the girl from Castle Oblivion, the one in the sky blue coat. She picked up Master Seeker and turned on the figure.

"This was getting boring anyway." He disappeared in a dark corridor, leaving the group alone with the girl.

Ven slowly walked up to her, "Aqua… is that you?"

The girl took off her hood to reveal her short-cut cerulean hair and blue eyes. "Hello Ventus!"

"AQUA!" He ran to her and they embraced. "You're alright!"

A tear of joy ran down her smiling face as she said, "Yes Ven, I'm so happy to see you safe again." She let Ven go and looked up to see the king of DisneyTown standing there smiling. "Mickey! Thank you, for helping Ven." She then looked over at the three Destiny Islanders and smiled brightly. "Last time I saw you three you were little, about four or five years old."

It took a moment but Sora suddenly remembered her, "You! I remember you! I saw you in the dream worlds and when I was four years old!"

"And I remember you… Sora, Riku, and Kairi. If I remember right though, Kairi was from a different world than you two; I met her in RadiantGarden."

Kairi thought for a moment, "I'm sorry, I don't remember my life in RadiantGarden. I lost my memories when I arrived on the islands."

"I should have known," Aqua giggled, "That spell is what brought you to the islands."

"What spell?"

The bluette went over and touched Kairi's pendant. "You don't remember, but you still wear that necklace. When we first met I sensed your pure light and placed a spell on you by this pendant. The spell would lead your light to the light of another when you were in danger." She glanced over at Sora, "It did its work right." This made them both blush. "We can discuss this more later; right now there is someone who you might want to see." She walked towards the beach and the others followed; soon they saw a tall figure in a black coat sitting there.

He stood and turned to them, "I was not expecting to see you this soon."

"Huh!" Riku recognized that voice instantly, "Ansem the Wise!" The figure took off his hood to reveal a man with bright orange eyes, and blonde hair that went down into the hood.

"Hello to you too; Aqua and I have been expecting you for some time." His eyes drifted over to Lea, "Mr. Fahrenheit… this is a surprise. I would've expected to see you avoiding all contact with the dark realm."

The pyro rolled his eyes, "Great… first Rufus Shinra and now you. Can this day get any worse?"

"Nice to see you again too."

"I'm just joking," Lea smirked, "Ansem… it's good to see you again. I never expected to find you here, or anywhere for that matter."

Ansem smiled, "It's good to see all of you here as well, except I wish here wasn't the Realm of Darkness. Now I think we should find a way out of here; Riku and Sora, you escaped once I know, how?"

"Sora's light… it allowed us to escape. His light focused on Kairi and we were able to get back to the islands," Riku told them.

Sora's face grew red as he said, "Well that won't work this time… someone else's light will have to do it. This time though, we probably need to get to RadiantGarden. But, who has someone in that world that their light can reach out to?"

"Well… what about Lea?" Ven looked over at the pyro, "His mother's there… not to mention Sera."

This got him a glare, "Um Ven, I'm not exactly the most light filled person."

"It's our only chance, Lea please try." Donald exclaimed.

"Fine, I'll try." He closed his eyes and though about his mom. It had been years since he had last seen her, and though he may not act like it, he missed her terribly. She had raised him by herself since he was little. Her smiling face filled his mind.

He remembered something she had told him when he was younger, "Lea… no matter what you do, whether it be good or bad, you'll always have a safe place with me."

"Mom…"

Then his thoughts drifted over to Sera. He remembered one of the times that he came back to RadiantGarden to see her. They were sitting on the roof of a castle tower; Sera reached over and adjusted his scarf, "It's too bad that you have to go again. Lea, always remember that I'll be here waiting for you; no matter how far or long you're gone, I'll always be waiting."

"Oh… Sera…" Before them a door of light opened up.

Ansem smiled at the pyro, "Well done Lea! Let's go home."

They walked through the door and, unlike last time, they were on the ground and in the castle postern. "I cannot believe that worked."

Donald smirked at Riku, "Oh ye of little faith."

"Oh my!" Just coming up from the labs was Cissnei, "What… how? Ansem the Wise! How did you get here?"

"Cissnei, you have your son to thank for that." All eyes turned to Lea, who grinned sheepishly. "I will explain later, right now I need to go down to the lab area. There is something that belongs to Aqua down there."

This surprised the bluette, "What?"

"Well is that armor and Keyblade we found some years ago yours or not?" Ansem cocked his head in question.

She smiled, "It is."

"Shall we then?"

They walked down through the castle hallways silently until Ven suddenly remembered something. "Hey Aqua, when Sora and I saw you in Castle Oblivion you had your Keyblade Stormfall; but you have Master Keeper with you not Stormfall."

"I didn't want to reveal that I had Master Eraqus's blade if someone was watching us. I used up my extra energy to show you Stormfall."

"Oh."

They entered Ansem's study where Dilan, Aeleus, Ienzo, and Even were working. The former Xaldin noticed them first, "MASTER ANSEM!" The other three apprentices looked up in shock. There was a stunned silence until Dilan again spoke, "It's… it's good to see you alive and well sir. Please accept our sincerest apologies about joining Xehanort."

"You are forgiven, I know you weren't yourselves." He looked down at himself. "Now that I'm home again I should probably get rid of this infernal coat." He pulled it off to reveal an outfit nearly identical to the ones Even and Ienzo were wearing. Ansem then opened the top drawer of his desk, pulled out a red scarf, and wrapped it around his neck so that part of it hung down his back like a short cape.

Ienzo cracked a small smile, "Now you look like yourself sir."

"Thank you Ienzo. Now we need to make a stop by the Chamber of Repose and retrieve the armor and Keyblade." He led them down to the former Heartless maker, which was now under construction and being reverted into another gummi hanger. Ansem held out his hand and a large section of the floor moved to reveal a stairway. The stairs spiraled downward till they were out of sight.

Sora clutched his stomach, "Just looking down that far makes me wanna hurl."

"That makes two of us." Ven put a hand over his mouth.

"It's a long walk," Ansem turned to the bluette, "Miss Aqua, you might want to take off the coat. You'll probably be more comfortable in your ordinary clothes."

"Good idea." Shedding the coat, the others got a better look at her. She was wearing a navy sleeveless, skin-tight, turtleneck; over her lower torso was a black corset that laced up on both sides and over her upper torso were two pink crossing straps with the Mastery symbol in the middle. Her gray sleeves, that started in the middle of her upper arms, had armor on them that was blue and silver, and on her hands were darker gray fingerless gloves. Her skin-tight black shorts went to the middle of her thighs and her black socks went up above her knees; her silver armored boots were accented with black. She had a white cloth wrapped around her waist and two blue pieces hung off to the sides. "Much better."

"Oh Aqua," Kairi smiled, "You look so pretty!"

This made the older girl blush, "Thank you Kairi; you know… you look very lovely too."

"Girls…" Lea sighed. He turned and saw that now both girls were glaring at him. "My bad… um, why don't we get walking?" He took off down the stairs at a rapid pace.

The others followed slower, laughing at him as they walked. The walk was very long and tiring; Aqua was glad she had taken off her coat before they began the trek.

Finally they reached the bottom, but it looked like someone wanted to keep them out. The floor was crisscrossed with lasers, as was the entire area around the door. "Ok," Goofy gulped, "How do we get through there? Can we get through there?"

Riku grabbed Donald's hat and threw it into the lasers. The duck squawked as his hat was incinerated. "WWAAKKK! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR YOU BIG PALOOKA!?"

"Didn't you want to know if we could get through there?" The duck continued to glared daggers at him.

Kairi suddenly remembered something; she reached into her left boot and pulled out a summon gem she had picked up after flipping that guy over the cliff. The round gem was a deep blue color with a black pointed face with pointed ears, there were two blue triangles for eyes, and the bottom part was a gray color with an upside down black triangle. "I might have someone who can help with this." She held up the gem and yelled, "SLY COOPER!"

In a flash of light a raccoon, a little shorter than Ventus, appeared. He had brown eyes that were surrounded by a black mask; on his head was a blue cap. He was wearing a quarter-sleeved blue shirt with a gold turtle-necked collar; around his waist was a gold belt with a black symbol that had been on the gem. His gloves were blue with gold around the ends, on his upper left leg was a red strap that held a red bag, on his feet were blue boots, and in his hand was a cane with a golden hook on the end. "Need some help?"

"Yea," Kairi pointed to the door, "We need to get in there, and I think I can see a control panel beside the door. You think you could get over there?"

He looked from under the brim of his cap at the web of lasers. "Shouldn't be a problem." He jumped through the first set of lasers, and, using some ledges that jutted out from the wall, climbed upwards and leapt over the second set. Then, making good use of a hook that hung from the ceiling swung over the last set and drove his cane into the control box; the lasers vanished leaving the walkway open. Sly walked back over with a smile. "Any time you need the help of a thief, give me a call!" Then he vanished.

"That was convenient."

"Sure was," Sora looked over at his girlfriend, "Where did you find that summon?"

She walked over to the door, turned back to him, and smiled, "In the Realm of Darkness." The group walked into the room. It was silver with chains and Nobody symbols around the room; in the center was a chair and lying before the chair was the Keyblade that they had seen Aqua using in Castle Oblivion and a pile of blue and silver armor.

Aqua walked up to the pile and held out her hand; Stormfall appeared her hand and the armor collected into an orb of light and flew into the armor on her left shoulder. "Ansem, thank you for keeping this for me."

"You're welcome Aqua. I owe you wielders of the Keyblade so much, we all do. Now you'd best be on your way; Xehanort won't wait on you to rest up. We can get you all the supplies you need."

Riku bowed his head respectfully, "Thank you Ansem." Lea began walking up the stairs, leaving the rest behind. "Where are you going hot-head?"

"I have a girlfriend to go see." He turned away, "And I need to introduce her to my Mom."

Ansem cocked an eyebrow as he walked away. "He has a girlfriend?"

"Yep!" Goofy smiled, "It's that girl we mentioned, Sera."

"How interesting."

(Later in the Gummi Hanger)

Light Streakier was prepped for takeoff. Riku, Sora, and Ven were loading the last of the supplies while Lea said his farewells to his mother and girlfriend. "Really Lea…" Sora groaned as he lifted a large crate of food into the ship, "You're the oldest, you should be helping."

"Oh chill out Sora," Aqua said from the kitchen.

Kairi agreed, "He doesn't know how long it'll be till he sees them, and he just found his mom and now he has to leave again."

Lea was close enough to hear them but he wasn't paying attention. "I'll come back soon, I promise. Mom, please take care of Sera; Sera, please help my mom settle back in."

"Don't worry Lea," Cissnei hugged her son, "I'm sure she and I will be wonderful friends by the time you come back."

"Yes, and really worry Lea, I'll help her settle in." She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "We'll be waiting."

As he turned back towards the ship his mother grabbed his arm, "Lea, I know you are angry with him, but if you happen to find him please send him home."

"Fine," the pyro looked at the ground, "I'll do it… but only for you. Don't expect me to be happy about it." Cissnei smiled and nodded slowly. Lea smiled and walked onto the ship; the guys had just finished loading. "So… ya'll ready to go?"

"Yep!"

"Aqua, you think you're ready to get back into this thing?"

She smiled at Ven, "Of course I'm ready! I hope that we can help free Terra from Xehanort." Her eyes fell downcast. "I really thought that I freed him when I saved him from the Realm of Darkness so many years ago." A single tear ran down her cheek as thoughts of that battle filled her mind.

"Aqua…" The bluette felt a hand touch her arm lightly; Kairi had come up beside her, "You ok?"

A small smile spread across the older girl's face. "Yes, I'm fine." Looking at Kairi, she could remember the little girl she saved from the Unversed; now here she was, a young woman, a young Keyblade wielder. "Kairi, if it would be ok I would like to help you along with training, magic, or just anything."

"Thank you Aqua, I would like that. Lea's already like a big brother, and now I can have a big sister too!"

"Alright!"

"Let's go!"

"Ok then," Riku plopped down into the drivers seat. He started the engine, "Let's get moving!" The ship hummed to life and then blasted out of the hanger. Things seemed a little brighter now that Aqua was with them.

AQUA'S BACK! Now, the fun really begins. Please review, I want to know you're thoughts on the chapter. And who do you think that mysterious character was who attacked them?

Teaser time… The group lands on a new world full of peace-loving woodlanders who are under attack by an evil rat and his hoard of vermin. Can the Keybladers help them? Next time in Mossflower!

Out of the Darkness

Thirteen years! That is a freakishly long time to wait for something… though I've seen longer (Doctor Who: try waiting 2000 years). Aqua wandered, trapped in the dark realm for so long. Finally she was rescued, but not just her, Ansem the Wise as well.

Many people are living in darkness today, and they can see no way out. God can help you out! In Colossians 1:13 (MSG) Paul writes, "God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dudgeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating."

God's Son, Jesus, has already rescued us from darkness; we just have to accept it! We no longer have to live in the darkness; we are welcomed into the light!